Paper short abstract:

Drawing on STS and feminist techno-science studies, this talk focuses on the (re)-making of two different tech regions through mobilization of new entrepreneurial networks in the Bay Area and Munich.

Paper long abstract:

Entrepreneurs are agents of innovation for creative destruction (Schumpeter 1942). They are expected to be always ready to trade whatever is necessary for the next opportunity (Latour 1993). Yet, from the literature -if not from our personal experiences, we know that humans need a network of relations to sustain living (Tsing 2015). But how can the free-floating entrepreneurs sustain a living?

During a nine-months field work in entrepreneurial housing (known as co-living spaces) in the Bay Area and Munich, I found that a particular bond is emerging among co-living entrepreneurs which is not only limited to business interaction but also ubiquitous to all aspects of social life, providing emotional and professional support for the parties involved. To explain such happening, I developed the term ‘entrepreneurial kin’, a type of bond that supports entrepreneurs to mobilize creative destruction in a specific region. Entrepreneurial kin not only brings entrepreneurs together, demonstrating a deep, yet concurrently fluid social tie, but it also co-shapes and transforms the vision(s) of tech regions that it is embedded in.

Drawing on feminist techno-science tradition of co-shaping (Wajcman 2004, 2010), and STS (Latour 1993; Müller et al. 2014; Haraway 2016; Clarke and Haraway 2018), this talk focuses on the (re)-making of two different tech regions in the Bay Area and Munich, through mobilization of new entrepreneurial networks. Here, the entrepreneurial network is seen as the agent of innovation that transforms the region from the inside out. Situational Analysis, in-depth interviews, and ethnography are used as main methods.